DEW representatives said a malicious user replaced the main page of the website with a message; however, officials want to make clear the website was not hacked.

Officials said when they realized what had happened, their IT department took the website off line to remove the message.

Agency spokeswoman Adrienne Fairwell said they became aware of the issue because of “the multiple layers of security controls the agency already has in place.”

State Sen. Kevin Bryant, who is on the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, said he has been pressuring the department to make changes after noticing “incompetency” within the agency.

Bryant said it is hard for him to believe that more damage wasn’t done by the user.

“If a computer criminal was able to get this far obviously they wouldn't go to the trouble of just to do this and I'm surprised a criminal would actually do something that would reveal their presence unless they've gotten something and they did this on the way out,” he said.

Bryant also sits on the oversight panel that is looking into the Department of Revenue security breach, which exposed more than 3 million Social Security numbers this fall.

Bryant said the panel will discuss DEW issues when they meet next.

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